SheevaPlug PBX

[Greg] has been working on a version of Debian/ FreePBX/ Asterisk for people to be able to drop onto a SheevaPlug. If you haven’t seen it, the SheevaPlug is a tiny computer housed in a wall plug. They made some waves when they were announced last year, and we’ve spoken of them severaltimes. [Greg] is offering up the operating system in a pre configured format for SD cards so you can just download it and drop it in your SheevaPlug. Yeah, there’s a little bit of work to do before it will boot, which you can see in the video above. Thanks for sending this in [Greg], keep up the good work.

Your best bet to interface is to use a VOIP provider (better value for your telecom money) and/or use an ATA (analog terminal adaptor) with phones at home (or start using IP phones!)

Linksys make several ATA’s I like… My two favorite are re-branded Sipura devices.

SPA-2102 – provides two interfaces for analog phone circuits in your house, you can wire them all up if you want too, so you and the kids can have separate calls in parallel.

SPA-3102 – provides an internal interface for your legacy analog phones like the 2102, and can link to your telco phone line (bring in outside calls, or place telephone analog line calls). Read up on FXS and FXO lines.

Both are talked to via SIP over wired Ethernet. Web interface configurations, each retail for about $60.

It’s best to go Ethernet, no silly USB interface issues, use with ANY phone system you want, VOIP providers directly, or the PlugPBX :)
You can get units with a few interfaces or dozens for analog phones or mix your house like mine with IP phones and analog phones via ATA(s). PlugPBX is agnostic, you bring your own interfaces/devices, use Ethernet devices – its what its for ;)

@fartface
It’s a name that has already existed; by convention, you name things after things that already exist. A sheeva doesn’t exist, because it’s not a word, therefore it’s silly to call something a sheevaplug.

Why can’t one give something a new name?
If you come up with something new, you don’t want it to be mistaken for something else, or describe it all the time, like ‘that very small, cheap and economical pc, without video output but with an internet connection, sd-cardreader and usb-port’.
So you give it a new name, and the first time someone hears from it they’ll say ‘Sheeva, what’s that?’. And after they are given a description, they will know what it is and use the word Sheeva to describe it.
Silly? Maybe.
Practical? Sure.

Of the things you listed, half of them have stupid names. The other half are named after things that already exist; for example, Bose is a last name and Listerine is based on someone’s last name. Mandriva just sounds dumb.

So wait – Listerine being based on a word that exists is fine, but Sheeva being based on a word that exists isn’t? Oh, and here’s another one: Bausch & Lomb ReNu. Renu isn’t a word. Renew is. About the same amount of difference as Sheeva and Shiva.

Saying it’s a dumb name – sure, you’re entitled to your own opinion I guess. I disagree, but whatever. But you specifically said it’s a bad name simply because it’s not named after something that exists, and that it’s silly to name things after something that doesn’t exist. And that’s just plain dumb.

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